The Munich car manufacturer BMW made significantly less profit at the start of the year than a year ago. The bottom line is that, according to Wednesday’s information, the company earned 2.951 billion euros, which is 19.4 percent less than in the first quarter of 2023.
The group’s earnings before interest and taxes fell by around a quarter year-on-year to 4.05 billion euros. The model change in the important 5 Series model weighed on the figures, as did the higher proportion of fully electric cars that were not yet so lucrative. Higher production costs also played a role: According to BMW, from the second quarter of 2023 onwards, costs for wages, for example, increased and inventories purchased at low prices were used up.
The profit margin in the car business, which is important for the company, was 8.8 percent, 3.3 percentage points below the exceptionally high level of the previous year’s quarter. The key figure has now been at or above the long-term target range of 8 to 10 percent for nine quarters. BMW continues to expect this profit margin for the year as a whole and confirmed its forecast for deliveries and pre-tax profit. The share price nevertheless fell noticeably in the morning.
At the same time, sales in the first quarter fell slightly to 36.614 billion euros. Analysts surveyed by the company had predicted a profit of 2.674 billion euros and sales of 36,854 billion euros.
According to previous information BMW Around 595,000 cars were sold in the first quarter, 1.1 percent more than a year ago. Growth drivers were fully electric vehicles as well as highly motorized and Luxury cars. However, sales fell in the most important sales market, China.